There's not much time to wander from task at hand

Michael Cockerill

Old is new again. The A-League's next team will proudly carry the burden of history into a future fraught with challenges. Yesterday, on a sun-kissed winter's day, that horizon began to take shape with the official unveiling of the name, logo and colours. Western Sydney Wanderers is the name of the competition's 10th team, who will sport an orthodox logo on the breast of an eye-catching shirt of red and black horizontal stripes virtually identical to that of Brazil's most famous team, Flamengo. They sound, and look, like a proper football team, rather than a creation of some marketing shyster having a mid-life crisis. For those who understand, and respect, tradition, that comes as a great relief.

Not that long ago, of course, Football Federation Australia were prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to distance themselves from the game's sometimes chequered past. Suddenly they're keen to embrace it. A team called Wanderers played in the first recorded game of football in NSW in 1880. That match was played just a few kilometres from Parramatta Stadium, where yesterday's launch was held, and where the team is likely to play the bulk of its matches. The symbolism was no accident. Lyall Gorman, who is the club's inaugural executive chairman, told a packed gallery that ''we feel a huge responsibility to honour our history … and show respect for those who have been pioneers''.

Old soccer meets new football … Western Sydney Wanderers, the A-League's 10th team, were officially launched yesterday at Parramatta Stadium. Photo: Brendan Esposito

You get the sense he means it. Gorman, football operations manager John Tsatsimas, head coach Tony Popovic, assistant coach Ante Milicic and goalkeeping coach Ron Corry, are all deeply imbued in ''old soccer'' culture. Perhaps, at last, we'll get an A-League club run, and built, by people with skin in the game. That these people are being employed by the FFA, who are bankrolling the club, suggests Whitlam Square has finally learnt the error of their ways. The charm offensive continued when the Wanderers hierarchy met with local NSW Premier League clubs straight after the launch. To this point, there's a welcome mood of co-operation.

For all that, it's going to be a tough baptism. The Greater Western Sydney Giants got a two-year lead-in, and have the security of a drip-feed of about $20 million per year for the next 10 years from the AFL. The Wanderers get a six-month lead-in, and a one-season guarantee of just $6 million from the FFA. Despite the enormous disparity, no one is expecting much from the Giants for the foreseeable future, while everyone expects the Wanderers to hit the ground running. Why? Because AFL, as a sport, is effectively in a start-up phase in Sydney's western suburbs. Football, by contrast, has huge participation numbers, and a long history in the region.

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Western Sydney may be getting its first A-League team, but it's a mature, and demanding, market for the sport, and the benchmarks will have to be high - shoestring budget or not. Western Sydney may be the heartland of football, but it can be a cold heart if things don't go right. Among those who attended the launch was a man who bravely admitted to having once been a Parramatta Power supporter. That's the team which was funded for five years by nearby Parramatta Leagues Club, ended up playing before crowds of barely 1000, and died a merciful death after losing the last NSL grand final in 2004, having dropped a cool $15 million in the process. If the Wanderers needed reminding of the price of failure, the ghosts of the Power were thick in the air.

The FFA, you sense, realise the margin for error isn't in their favour. Principally, they need to create a club within a short space of time that credible private investors will be willing to take off their hands. The Wanderers don't need to win the league in their debut season, but they need to be in the finals mix. In that context, you would hope the last phase of their recruiting campaign delivers a bit more inspiration.

The word is Popovic has already filled half his 23-man squad, with Aaron Mooy, Tarek Elrich and Kwabena Appiah-Kubi given the honour of unveiling the playing strip for the first time yesterday. Within the next week, the likes of Mark Bridge, Nikolai Topor-Stanley, Labinot Haliti, Ante Covic, Michael Beauchamp and Shannon Cole will be formally added to the list. It's no judgment, but the fact is most of these players were unwanted by their former clubs. Popovic is believed to have signed two Croatian players during his recent scouting trip to Europe, and it will be interesting to see their pedigree. Somewhere in the process the Wanderers will need to find players to get the turnstiles moving, and the scoreboard ticking. Everyone knows the potential is enormous. Everyone knows the challenge is even bigger. But that's exactly why it's worth it.